Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Season 2 Has a Lot of Harry Potter Hangover

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Season 2 Has a Lot of Harry Potter Hangover

Friday, 03 May 2019

Are you a fan of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina? Aparnna Hajirnis decodes how the second season is a lot like Harry Potter

Sabrina

What do the phrases ‘The Dark Lord’ and ‘The Chosen One’ remind you of? Harry Potter, amiright? No, it also forms the main crux of the story for Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, a teen-witch show which released the second part of the show, early last month. For those who don’t know what the show is about, let me brief you about it. The show is based on teenage witch Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka). But unlike the predecessor and the sitcom starring Melissa Joan Hart, this show is a serious take on witchcraft and wizards. We might say even more than Harry Potter. For starters while Harry Potter was mainly about the fight between good and evil, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is about a coven worshipping Lucifer. So here the Dark Lord is actually the Devil himself, and not a particular person being labelled.

Coming back to season 2, the second season picks up pace, which is a much better relief from the mundane realities of Sabrina in season one. While season one was your average high school drama with witchcraft on the side, season two delves deeper in the mysteries of witchcraft. Much like Harry Potter, Sabrina too is the ‘Chosen One’ and the one who will bring the Dark Lord to his knees. Like Harry, Sabrina too possesses dark powers which will be essential to combat the Dark Lord. But the Lucifer, here wants Sabrina by his side, as his Queen, even though it is later revealed that he fathered her as well (ewwww). But then, Sabrina has a golden heart who wants to do good and performs miracles like curing her friend of her blindness. While, it is not clear which era the show is set in, we can safely assume, it is the pre-smartphones and pre-wokeness era. Her friend, Susie finally comes out as trans and assumes a new identity ‘Theo’. She faces harassment and abuse from the boys at their high-school and Sabrina, like a true friend helps her out with this problem. This season also shows the development of Harvey’s character (Ross Lynch) who has the hidden talent of drawing graphic cartoons. There is also the sub-plot of Father Blackwood running the Academy Of Unseen Arts in the most patriarchal way possible. We thought we could see a lot of rebellion from Sabrina on this front, but there isn’t much. We also get introduced to Anti-Pope (yes, we heard about this the first time too). But mainly this season is about Sabrina channeling her inner power and her coming to terms with the future holds. Michelle Gomez as Lilith outperforms as always and there is a surprise waiting at the climax. But everything kept reminding us of Harry Potter as we have already seen duels, death spells, prophecies, wizarding schools, putting spells on people to control them, etc. There is one episode like the Battybat in season 1 which is bound to mess with your mind. It is written fantastically and will disturb you, if you have gotten too comfortable with the show. This season will show aunties Hilda and Zelda with new perspectives as well. They have shed their conservative selves and are more accepting and open towards Sabrina’s radical ideas. What will get on your nerves is Sabrina at times, behaving too sanctimonious. Nevertheless, this season too, is binge-worthy like the previous one.